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EL NUEVO MUNDO 



EL NUEVO MUNE)0: A POEM BY 
LOUIS JAMES BLOCK: AUTHOR 
OF DRAMATIC SKETCHES AND PO- 
EMS. 



U) Love thou thy land, with love far-brought 

From out the storied Past, and used 
Within the Present, but transfused 
Thro' future time by power of thought. 

Tennyson. 



3 3 
33 3 



CHICAGO: 

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY, 

1893- 






copyright, 1893, 
By Louis James Block. 



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Win bem @emu§ ftel^t bie ^atnx in etoigem SSunbe ; 

SSa§ bie eine oerfprid^t, leiftet bie anbre Qtto\% ©filler. 



TO THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 



DEDICATION. 

I. 

The century's unrelenting strength of quest 

Has followed Thought through blossoms and through 

weeds, 
And found (men say) that every pathway leads 
Into a cloudland where the footing prest 
Is the insubsistence of a sea's unrest ; 

An island in an ocean of mere dream, 
The life which hoped a truest and a best, 
Learns that the best and truest only seem ; 
A bitter, helpless creed ! 
No wonder-working deed 
Can thence draw vigor which should surely stream 
Through all its pulses, and its fire must deem 
Itself a strange subversion of the law 
Holding vague insecurity in awe ; 
A luminous truth that truth is built on ignorance, 
And Time's endeavor vast the dazzling gift of chance ! 

II. 

Nay, we are not deceived ; no lampless night 

Glooms round the world and hope with its despair; 
Thought winged rises into regions fair 

Where is the dominant, all-transfiguring light ; 

Faith has revealed the heart of Love aright 

9 



10 EL NUEVO MUNDO 

That beats through history's tempest and its roar, 
The felt decadence of the selfless might 
Sweeps from the skies the cloud-heaps more and more ; 
Who now shall further doubt 
That a most dismal rout 
"Waits the dull fears, whose threatenings loud and sore, 
With bannered hosts, against our temples bore? 
Unshattered on the Heavenward-looking hill 
The marble splendor fronts the sunrise still ; 
The blue-eyed Goddess smiles and turns her unveiled shield 
Upon the invading bands, who strew the smoking field. 



in. 

Yet progress has been devious and slow : 
The Spirit sometimes has been out of breath 
And pale unto the very verge of death ; 
Fierce as the mountain torrent's sudden flow, 
Erratic as the wildest winds that blow, 

The movement oft has seemed to rush and fall 
Down steeps and crags where safety might not go ; 
Then the swift stream has made a sharp recall 
Into its truer bed, 
And by some influence led 
That keeps its foam-flecked waves in juster thrall, 
Has bounded forward to the longed-for hall. 
Windy and large, with changing sky, and free. 
The waters' end and aim, the brilliant sea; 
So hope, the sea-gull, lifts his more adventurous wings, 
Lured by the flaming sun wherewith the wide world sings. 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 11 



IV. 



Some clear-eyed angel must have watched and tended 
The growths of love and patience in the heart, 
Some wisdom guarded with divinest art 
Gentleness, faith, and sweet assurance, blended 
Into a dream which saw the storm transcended ; 
Chief wonder that such fragile blooms survived 
Amid the conflict seemingly never ended, 
Chief miracle that they none the less contrived 
To taste the finer air 
Which is their daily fare ; 
Securely in the rudest bosom hived. 
And from the sternest gloom and rage revived, 
Their very slightness gave them strength to gain 
Gradual possession of the changed domain ; 
For they are of the tribe which toil and strive the best 
When they are needed most and days are dismalest. 

V. 

Love felt the bitterness in those ancient days, 
Being forced to mask as passion base and rude, 
And mother of a fierce and brawling brood, 

Hatreds that used the noonday's sovereign blaze 

To lamp man further on destruction's ways ; 
Yet even then Love knew to claim and charm, 

And hold the impregnable and awless gaze; 
Amid the wanton revelry of harm 
Arose the prophetess 
Touched by God's own caress. 
And led the clan in hours of dire alarm ; 



12 EL hlUEVO MUNDO 

So woman's weak and terrorless right arm 
Pointed the pathway men were glad to take, 
And then as now her words were strong to wake 
The trembling higher moods, that slowly came to win 
The place of gradual rule and power the soul within. 



VI. 

But Love was lured by glamour of delight 
Into forgetfulness of loftier aims, 
And sank to depths that were not unlike shame's ; 
Set in a paradise of softest might, 
And lulled in dreams that made the heavens a slight 

And empty thing to lose, weighed in the scale 
With sense imperial, and suffused aright 
With the refined and subtly sweet avail, 
The hours wore on apace. 
Touching with hands that lace 
And part in a strange dance's measured pale, 
And pleasure said at heart its faint All hail! 
Lest too loud speaking should evoke the death ^ 

Which must wait on such perilous charmed breath ; 
Shut in these mist-built walls the world's strength feminine 
Slumbered, but knew in visions that its sleep was sin. 



vn. 

Could the imprisonment last? Nay, warrior queens 
Threw the frail chains from off them like clear dew 
Shed from the flank of lioness when new 

The sanguine sunrise bursts the leafy screens ; 



EL hlUEVO MUNDO 13 

Or radiant motherhood pre-eminent leans 
From its enforced seclusion and requires 
Room for the growth whose dear supremacy weans 
From base subjection to unleashed desires ; 
Or the lithe sorceress 
With eyes of wild excess 
Warmed her ambitions at great empire's fires ; 
Or the loud triumphs of impassioned lyres, 
Mixed with low wailings of a life suppressed, 
Floated across the time like foam on crest 
Of fluctuant waters or a meteor's lingering track. 
Paling the stars themselves, over night's depth of black. 

VIII. 

The masculine might of will arose supreme 
In the white mid of heaven ; now womanhood. 
Co-equal, potent, fair, beside him stood. 
No mistress and no daughter, some bright dream 
Of golden wisdom, or a vague foregleam 

Of love's own pureness, but that love's great whole 
That wisdom's rich and self-concentred stream. 
Having known grief and ruler of the soul ; 
A new life was begun, 
Lit by that female sun, 
Wherewith earth thrilled from its stern pole to pole, 
As hope sweeps through the reaches of the soul ; 
The future spoke unto the present pale, 
The new light overflowed the horizon's veil. 
The dominations barbarous of the twilight heard 
Above them sound the rumor of their dooming word. 



14 EL NUEVO MUNDO 

IX. 

Two equal powers in all life's separate spheres, 
.Two streams of Influence working out the good, 
Two infinite forms of potent servanthood. 
Two strengths arrayed against dark doubts and fears, 
The feeling whose fine clearness knows and hears, 
The intelligence that is sweet warmth and glow, 
The instinct whose forthrightness never veers. 
The thought which pierces thorough sense and show, 
With freedom everywhere 
To build the high and fair. 
Each being rich soil for other's hand to sow, 
And inner space where nobler harvests grow, 
Life's centre found in each and outer rim 
Reaching beyond the stars most distant-dim, 
Until the end is gained where temporal difference 
Fades in the light of heaven, supreme, unstained, intense. 



X. 



O Western World ! what the long strain and toil 
Of the great periods have wrought and won 
Leaves unto you a labor but begun ; 

Here is the land of promised wine and oil. 

Here is the State which many failures soil 
Incarnated anew and strong once more. 

Alert, high-hearted, and equipped to foil 
The dangers that confront us with their roar; 
Here is the land of gold 
Which wise men seek to hold, 



EL NUEf^O MUNDO 15 

Not gold whose heapings mock with longing sore. 
But purer metal which for helmet wore 
And shield the brave who saw and loved the right, 
And were suffused with eager conquest's might ; 
O golden land of ours ! Arise and strive to be. 
Time's purposes attained. Freedom and Victory! 



I. 

THE OLD WORLD. 

In the great morning of the world, 
The Spirit of God with might unfurled 
The flag of Freedom over Chaos, 

And all its banded anarchs fled , 
Like vultures frighted from Imaus 

Before an earthquake's tread. 

SHELLEY 



THE OLD IVORLD 

* 

I. 

God's Thought rose clear before him and he said : 
'*Lo ! I will fashion for mine eyes to see 
The mighty miracle of Liberty ; 
Unto my will shall many wills be wed, 
With mine own life shall lesser lives be fed, 

With mine own being filled and wondrous fire, 
The increasing light by which all hearts are led 
Unto the summit of supreme desire ; 

From glowering suns and stars, 
From elemental wars, 
From interflux of powers and savage ire 
That bid the engirding night pause and admire. 
From anguish and despair, the wordless brood 
That haunt the expanse of forests primal-rude, 
I will bring forth that mine unenvying soul may know^ 
The lofty love wherewith but Freedom's self can glow." 



n. 



Then forth into the night a tumult spread. 
The fierce contentions of contrarious powers, 
And loud the noise was of the risen hours. 

And each one on the lust of battle fed, 



20 EL NUEVO MUNDO 

And life seemed with the horror stricken dead ; 

Then crescent, pale, mysteriously born, 
Like a low word divinely breathed and said, 
Light rose on the abyss whose ravenous scorn 
Lay soothed into a smile. 
And slowly perished while 
The blue skies rose above, and overworn 
The void gave way where earths with many a horn 
And curving gulf held back the seething waves. 
And mastered them ajid ruled them as the slaves 
Of large intents to come, and grasses clothed the rocks 
And blossoms burned amid in softly colored flocks. 

m. 

So shone the glory of the sun and night 
Became resplendent with her stars and moon, 
And life began to tremble Tvhere its boon 
Had fallen on silence, and the morn's firm light 
Broke its strange trance, and into joy and sight 

Burst the quick dance of ^^ondrous sensitive things. 
And seas were peopled with vast forms of might, 
And in the trees a myriad music rings. 
And the untimorous sod 
By manifold shapes was trod, 
And lo ! in forest deep, beside clear springs, 
And on the mountains sides where each wind sings, 
Beneath the skies where gold clouds rose and fled, 
Like breaths of bliss when hope and aim are wed, 
While expectation knew how far the miracle ran 
Beyond its farthest, came the consummation, Man. 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 21 



IV. 



In the cold dusk of caverns and by Tvaves 
Of inland waters or on Island shores 
Roared and tumulted the first reinless wars 
Of nameless und unnumbered tribes ; fierce slaves 
Of bitter passion and the fear which graves 
Its horror deep upon the heart, and makes 
The world a vast impendence whose gloom laves 
Half lamplessly ; for no sharp lightning breaks 
It save ghost newly fled 
Into lands of the dead, 
Capricious answer giving for their wild sakes 
Who raise loud-ringing prayers like sea that breaks 
Upon a rock-bound shore with noisy foam ; 
Pain drives them forth from wasted home to home, 
And fashions serpents, rocks, or trees into a god 
Of potenced nothingness, a mind-created rod. 

V. 

But the brave sun arose in kinglihead 

From darkness of the night and men looked forth 

And saw his hand in blessing laid from north 
To kindlier south, and their s wift longing sped 
About his footsteps ; so their watchings bred 

Hopes of emerging from their deeps of pain, 
Unto a lustrous height of being led, 

And noble zenith of unshattered gain.; 
They gladly saw the sway 
Of heroes, and the day 

Of gradual peace began to shine and reign, 



22 EL hJUEVO MUNDO 

And faith to purge itself of earth-born stain; 
Then through the vales the herds began to pass 

Where the sweet waters wet the thickening grass, 

And round the loftier dwelling of the chief and king 

Rose hum of toilers and the voice of maids who sing. 

VI. 

The restless thought with inner fire aflame, 
Like lamp soft glowing through its rosy screen, 
Illumed again ^vbat eager eyes had seen, 
And deeper toil of spirit strove to frame 
Anew its large possessions and lay claim 

Upon a broad demesne that bloomed and shone 
Before it, a miraculous realm to tame. 
Above the outer one of grief and moan ; 
The silver dreams that throng 
Give birth to wondrous song. 
To myth and story winged with rhythmic tone, 
And hopes that are the very spirit's own ; 
Whence flow a greater mastery and skill 
Which hold the tribes in friendlier chain and will, 
And bind in golden sheaves what has been sought and done 
And are the presage of the height already won. 

VII. 

Then order rose beside the calm-waved sea. 
First subsidence of the submerging fate, 
A mighty people and a kingdom great, 

Homaging strength of glorious ancestry. 

Their king was father ; his wise empery 



EL NUEyO MUNDO 23 

Ensouled his subjects and confirmed their deed, 
So that they grew and wove for men to be 
A fabric of observance where the need 
Of worship of the law 
Stood forth in perfect awe; 
A noble issue with the power to breed 
The thoughts that who would live must know and read ; 
Their seer, Confucius, spoke such words to men 
As have not ceased their sounding, denizen 
Of the high heaven of meek obedience, leader sure 
Into the land of peace which shall at last endure. 



vm. 



Under the fervid skies, and mid the growth 
Of tangled forests where the mountains vast 
Circle the shaded glens, a gloomy past 
Enwraps a nobler people ; ever loth 
To grasp the present firmly, seeing both 

The worlds of earth and heaven in mist of dreams 
Enrobed and mingled, they seemed bound by oath 
Of high allegiance to the One who gleams 
Recedingly on the gaze 
Turned Him wards ; by what ways 
Of severence from the body, down what streams 
Of anguish did they seek Him ; the land teems , 
"With monstrous shapes and visions that enthrall ; 
And chiefly thee, O Buddh, the foiled ones call 
Savior and friend, thee clothed in contemplation's rest. 
And finding loss of all and nothingness the best. 



24 EL NUE^O MUNDO 



IX. 



Forth came the sun of Persia, worshippers 
Of golden fires warring upon the dark, 
And dimly conscious of the answering spark 
That lights each heart with dream of truth, and errs 
Not in such dreaming ; lofty characters 

Of fixfed purpose to bear unto men, 
Despite the frowning hindrance which deters, 
The glow of spirit trembling back again 
Unto the sovereign splendor. 
As star is star's attender ; 
The soldier people rose from rocky glen 
And rivered plain, and earth was gladdened when 
Their victories brought the myriad tribes to be 
The children of the flame whose leaping free 
And wind-souled bounding skywards it was joy to make 
A symbol of the hope that burns for all men's sake. 

X. 

Beside the inland deep whose blue-waved flow 
Makes path dividUous unto luring realms. 
That visioned speed the flight of fearless helms 

Breaking through veils of distance, whither go 

The race's hopes, which dimly seem to know 
The fate of freedom showing like a sun 

On the sky's verge, where luminous mists rise slow, 
Dispersing from before the blaze begun, 
The heroic sailor land 
Uplifts her puissant hand ; 
Lo ! white-sailed commerce bids her mariners shun 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 25 

No vague far water-ways, nor leave undone 
A toil that wrests lands from the weltering seas ; 
Brave like her god, much toiling Hercules, 
And finding even pain a mystery of the heart 
Disclosing devious paths of conquest's peerleess art. 

XI. 

O wondrous people of the tortured fate, 
People grown strong with very sight of God, 
Strong to make live your stormy period 
In the wide soul of earth forever, hate 
And dark despair upon your footsteps wait 
For weary centuries ; giving God to man, 
Revealing the sure mean to dissipate 
The bitterness of woes that rose and span 
A mist of fear around him 
Age-long that held and bound him, 
Ye failed in your own destiny and wan 
A gloomy severance from the hope that ran 
Like a swift bearer of the brilliant torch 
Before you ; now within the thronged porch 
Of the white temple of the future ye too stand 
And your own God will ope and answer your demand. 

xn. 

What looms against the purple air, white flame 
Of stone that seems to climb and to aspire. 
The winged thing of manifold desire 
Before it, brooding and depressed "with shame, 
The dumb eyes sad with question and the blame 



26 EL hJUEVO MUNDO 

Of sore defeat? has Heaven no answer fit? 
Lo ! the soul waits, judged and set free to claim 
Its guerdon, in the citadel, unlit 
By lamp of any hope. 
And lingering out the scope 
Of its great longing ; near the temple sit 
Memnonian figures and the walls are writ 
With scrolls of ancient days, but through the aisles 
Oppression hovers and the voiceless piles 
Answer not anything and toward the silver sea 
The dreaming land looks whence the wished response must be. 



xin. 

In after days, O dim-eyed Orient, 
Your countless armies crossed the wind-swept straits' 
And shook the soil where fearless Freedom waits 
Your foiled attack, backwards you fied forespent 
And baffled in your mighty world-intent ; 

Your eyes were wan with pallid dreams and dreads, 
Your footsteps faltered on the ways besprent 
With battle's wreck, and the imperial heads 
Of Europe's leaders young 
Upon your dazed sight sprung, 
And your vast half-thoughts sunk into the beds 
Of world-remembrances, the potent dead's 
Last influx into life's new golden bloom ; 
You could not rend the heavy primitive doom 
That swathed you and the fire of soul and joined God 
Burst on the plains which beaten hordes of yours had trod. 



EL NUEFO MUNDO 27 



XIV. 



O land most radiant of the ancient world, 
Which burst the troubled dream wherein time lay, 
And shone the crimson dawn of very day 
And life arisen in fields with dew impearled, 
And over which the vanishing vapors curled. 

Uncovering: the sky and mounting sun, 
Before you fear and wrath swept downward whirled 
To deeps of the abysses unbegun ; 

Freedom awoke with Greece, 
And violet-crownfed peace; 
The soul was born and thought's first victory won, 
God stood in manhood's guise, and theforedone 
Base monsters of the ancient dread and terror 
Sank backwards from their pride of height and error. 
Being made subservient to the splendid dance of Love 
And Beauty, come to earth from realms of Powers above. 

XV. 

Unto world-conquest you marched forth, O Rome, 
Grandest of powers in the long roll of time, 
And shaper of the commonweal sublime 

In which all peoples found a place and home ; 

You knew with your firm legions on to roam 
And bind more wonderful than theirs a law 

Upon the toiling kingdoms ; in the tome 
Of God's own strength your searching insight saw 
A form of dominance 
That held your charmed glance; 



28 EL NUEl^O MUNDO 

And long as sovereignty kept close your awe 
Set on man's right to build, bereft of flaw, 
His inner life of choice into brave sight 
Of majesty and rule and visible might, 
The world was all your own ; deepener of thought to will, 
Although your own hand slew you, j^et you rule earth still. 

XVI. 

Next rose the star of wonder in the east, 
And wise and lowly came to worship where 
The babe lay in the manger ; light more fair 
And from diviner realms led to the feast 
Which welcomed chief the one who came as least; 

Earth's monarchies and national gods 
Trembled upon their thrones, and day increased 
With passing of the worn-out periods ; 
The realm of the within 
Was opened, and the din 
Of outer pomp fell with the lictor's rods ; 
From the great forest's moist and sun-flecked sods 
Swept the blue-eyed renewer and for him 
God rose in spirit and truth ; the Orient dim 
Clasped hands with sun-souled Greece, and knowledge of the 

soul 
Glowed on the peoples as their life's supremest goal, 

XVII. 

The time lay weltering in mere shame and fear, 
Monstrous with hopelessness and strange self-scorn 
Whence every form of wild desire was born, 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 39 

And passions that fulfillment made more drear. 
There was but one huge empire, and the near 

Self-slaughter in its dead f orgetfulness 
Of elder purposes made it appear 
Mere evanescence into space ; to bless 
The uncharactered vastitude 
And pour life fierce-renewed 
Into that chaos of world-wide distress, 
And cleanse with storm for touch of God's caress 
Upon his children's forehead, burst and ran 
The foaming hordes of the barbarian, 
And power again ensouled with what must surely be 
Saw freedom's sun cloud-burdened risen above the sea. 

XVIII. 

Sure inwardness and self-unfolding thought, 
Spirit's fine motions in each struggling heart. 
The Avhole of life resurgent in the part, 
Were new achievements ; truth within was brought 
Unto a growing vivid radiance wrought 

By troubled flight from the mere tangible ; 
Pulsings of soul the old world never sought, 
And nobler governance of holier will, 
The blonde-haired Northener 
Felt in him start and stir, 
Whence bloom transformed the meadow and the hill, 
Which deeper carols of the poets thrill ; 
The lands which had been savagely estranged 
Once more in brief bright unity were ranged ; 
They had gone, through sad years, yet into every man 
Entered a love wherewith his blood more freely ran. 



30 EL NUE^O MUNDO 



XIX. 



Mistress of realms celestial, and the spouse 
Of God himself, bride of the heavenly King, 
Whose solacing song your magic lips made ring 
Above the weary peoples, to your house 
Of comfort which the time half disallows, 

And your hand's patient touch and dominance, 
Fled the world-hunted and sin-branded brows 
And gathered light from your uplifting glance. 
O founded on God's rock, 
And shepherdess of the flock, 
Who looked for calm amid the whirl and chance 
Of evil days. O Church, who saw advance 
The slow sun up the higher-stretching skies. 
Until power wooed you with his glozing lies, 
You held the sacred keys, and your conviction turned 
The wheel of progress and with truth your deep eyes burned. 

XX. 

A sovereign rose, whose wise unfaltering hand 
Laid hold upon the tempest and the urge 
Of unbound passions, and within the verge 

Of careful potence bade them furl, expand, 

As listed him ; not long the roar unmanned 
Waited when death gave him a grave too deep 

For hopes that Charlemagne with brief breath fanned 
Into a sudden flame ; on toward the steep 
Sea of mad conflict bore 
The undiscernings sore ; 



EL hlUEVO MUNDO 31 

Sheeer lawlessness erected tower and keep 
Above the fields where blinded slaveries weep, 
And puny trembling monarchs drank the breath 
Of rule empoisoned with the smell of death ; 
Pale peace fled from the earth save where her lovers shun 
The storm within the church's anthemed orison. 

XXI. 

But heaven is never starless, and the moon 
Lifts up her silver face from boding cloud 
That hides but ill her splendor with the shroud 
Of storm and battle ; surer comes the boon 
Of high self-conquest, and the mystic rune 

Of freedom won from mid of fear and hate 
Shines clearer on men's brows ; forth late or soon, 
And rising far above the bitter fate 
That dominates the age 
Glooming its every page. 
The errant knights fare forth and lie in wait 
To force vile tyrannies from heights elate ; 
They see pure Love ^thin the heaven of thought. 
Fashioned of gentle hopes, with dreamings wrought : 
Queen of the life and hearts that Tvorship at her shrine, 
She lifts her eyes and guides them unto deeds divine. 

xxn. 

Again the awakened East had risen as erst 
In hours forgotten, and the conquering march 
Of arms Arabian underneath the arch 

Of many a sky had passed ; their fervor burst 



32 EL NUEVO MUNDO 

Their native deserts, and their worship nurst 

The hope of bringing back unto the One, 
TVhom they named God, the peoples now immerst 
In giant tasks ; but vain the victory won, 
And vain their prophet's call ; 
Against their kingdoms fall 
The Westerners who scorn their toils foredone, 
And beauty risen beneath their regnant sun ; 
As in the days of the far older time 
The Orient reels back shattered, and the clime 
Of Europe knows them but as sombre scudding rack 
That winds drive from before the light's sky-cleaving track. 

xxm. 

So was the West triumphant, and the gold 
Of growing light was conqueror of the storm 
Which had beset its dawn with gloom enorme ; 
The heaving billows of the conflict rolled 
Soothed by the splendor, and the hunted fold 

Of night unseasonable fled on before ; 
The heart's deep ^isionings became more bold 
And turned unto the sacred land which bore 
Love basely filleted 
And even mocked when dead ; 
Should they not gain the tomb ? thus more and more 
The life of man as one began to soar 
Before their gazings, and the memoried East 
Awoke new purpose, which grew and increased 
So that the bitter march was full of rich avail 
And truth again came sweeping down the orient gale. 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 83 

xxrv. 

Nor does high wisdom linger ; knowledge grows 
To more imperial potence and the soul 
Sees heaven's great realms before it float and roll, 
Centering in the pure passion-glowing rose 
Before God's throne ; whiter than sifted snows 
Love rules one heart with purpose clearer far 
Than old Greece thrilled with, and his rapt song flows 
From the time's depths, more silvern than the star 
That lights the violet sky- 
Before the dayspring's eye 
Takes to itself its lucence and the war 
With night hath one more victory, scimetar 
Made for the ages' hand, and fashioned well 
Of prayer and anguish and divinest spell, 
Slaying the beast within the man and hewing way 
To where Beatrice's eyes are pursuivants of day. 

XXV. 

As from the flawless stone the mighty limbs 
And sun-turned face disclose from day to day 
Their loosening glory, and the shadows play 

Beneath wide eyes wherein the joyous hymns 

Of wakening life lie silent, interims 
Of loveliness and strength to hold subdued 

Worship forever, being imaged thought which swims 
Upon the sense with rapture still renewed, 
So from the whelm and toss 
Of aims that strive and cross 



34 EL hlUEVO MUNDO 

The Nation rears its forehead, and imbued 
With heart to vanquish difference and feud 
Reveals a power superb, that is to set 
On the expectant world a coronet 
And sign of coming peace, and Freedom is the name 
The gi-eat birth bears, though vaguely known and sad with 
blame. 

XXVI. 

Earth grew more beautiful and human life 
Swept on more nobly ; dreams of seer and saint 
Gave way to joys that held without complaint 
Their revelries within the present ; strife 
Yet roars in madness where the hordes are rife 
Who pour from mythic Asia's soundless deeps, 
And thrust anew the rude barbaric knife 
At city's throat Tvhere ancient learning weeps 
Because of evil days ; 
So toward the "western ways 
Greece once more bears her quenchless torch, and steeps 
In goldener light, and re-enthronM keeps 
Her inexhausted regnance, that is sure 
As the great stars above and must endure, 
Being part of truth eternal and the pauseless strength 
Which shall bring all mankind into its calm at length. 

XXVII. 

The golden belted bees that hum within 
The honey-hearted flowers of pleasure fed 
The soul ^"ith strange delights, and sorcerous led 



EL NUBVO MUNDO 35 

Her feet on poisonous paths of passion ; yet to Tvin 
The beauty, which, born of the sun, had been 
The young' world's longing, and to see anew 
The whole of life, its triumph, love and sin, 
Statued or risen in towers or morned to view 
In unsurpassable splendor 
Of colors fierce or tender, 
Became the time's desire ; then soft winds blew 
Fraught with a lighter perfume, clearer dew, 
From long unvisited realms of Poesy; 
Birds of fresh joys sang in the new-leaved tree 
Of living disenthralled from gloom of prisoning dreams, 
And man walked forth beside the sky-reflecting streams. 

XXVIII. 

Heart of the world and mystery of time. 
Eyesight and life for which the pageant moves. 
Freedom, for whose fair sake adown the grooves 
Of ringing change from heavj-^ slumberous prime 
Unto thought's latter all- transpicuous clime. 

The toil and struggle of mankind have gone ! 
Your %teps have been amid the heat and rime 
Of nature's tumult, and the haggard wan 
Despair of history, 
Lessening in sIoav degree 
As you emerged in your own light and on 
The hills of conquest glittered paragon ! 
O mirror sending back to heavenly povrers 
Their imaged loveliness and crowned v^nth flowers! 
O unity of lands, the morning of your day 
Flashes across the verge, and holds the night at ba3' ! 



36 EL NUE^O MUNDO 

XXIX. 

The mountains rose benignant and the sea 
Clung- to its shores with lingering lover's lips ; 
The world of trees and blooms sprang from eclipse 
And smiled as never in the past ; to be 
Thought's painted veil and wizardry 

Of outer where all dreams are shown and glassed 
Was felt as nature's part of life ; and free, 
His splendors equally around him cast, 
The sun uprist on high, 
Center of worlds that vie 
In happy worship ; men knew clear at last 
The need of firm obedience and their vast 
Divisions sought to close and fall in tune; 
The night with blossom-stars or plenilune, 
The day with sun amidmost of the curving skies, 
Held the fair earth as love in arms of lover lies. 

XXX. 

The torch of thought gleamed on the cavemed rocks, 
And earth made bare her heart ; no smallest thing 
But held the secret wherewith planets ring 

And make the music that enfolds and locks 

The universe in its embrace ; the mocks 
Of elders, eye-bound Avith dead loves and hopes, 

Fled in the winds of search hke colored flocks 
Of leaves at autumn-tide ; time's horoscopes 
Were prescient of resolve 
And effort that revolve 
The reborn planet : fetters and old ropes 
Of dim opinion fell, weak as mere tropes 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 37 

Of sounding sophistries, when urgent liours / 
Arouse the soul of man with all its powers, 
When voice of prophet calls the wandering feet and brains 
Back to the needed toil on ever-harvested plans. 

XXXI. 

One deep intention held the restless soul 
Of all the period, shook it with vague thrill 
Of grand success, nerved its converging will 
Unto sheer fearlessness, and held the whole 
White-heated fervor bound unto the pole 

Of a great action ; star that rose to guide 
The impetuous endeavor to the goal 
For which the unwearied centuries fleet and ride 
The tempest-peopled sea 
Was search for land where tree 
Of Freedom might grow surely and abide 
The hour whose striking had been long denied. 
Firm in the heart of men and impulse strong 
Was need to grasp the earth and to prolong 
Their nobler life about its curving sides, absorb • 
Its spherM secret, and command the obedient orb. 

XXXII. 

Then Freedom might forever build its home 
Upon that conquest, and the very stars 
Rising from out the infinite dark thrust bars 
Away from their best knowing, and the dome 
Of heaven hold no more mystery, and to roam 
From light to light of gradual truth become 



38- EL UUEyO MUNDO 

The joy of search, feeling on brow the foam 
And wind of thought's great ocean where the dumb 
Forth-reachings of the past 
Fruition find at last ; 
One orb being solved, the distant maze and hum 
Of worlds whose multitude had dared to numb 
The earlier gropings rise in ordered song, 
Repeating the one story ; from the strong 
Desire of the great ages leaps divine and mild 
The longed-for, mild-eyed goddess, Fate's Fate-slaying child ! 



XXXIII. 

Also the truth that filled the restless mind 
Of the rapt seeker found a dwelling place 
Which should repel time's maliQe, face to face 
With old discoveries bring all human kind. 
Hold wisest memories safe and imresigned 

From regent purpose, cast the miracle far 
Of budding knowledges like seed confined 
In fruitful soil breaking in bloom as star 
Is clad with silver light 
To wage war on the night 
And conquer, burst the imprisoning bond and bar 
Of glooms that sought to hold the soul and mar. 
And build a realm where men's jnst dreams might tread 
And know their strength and bliss of kinglihead ; 
This too was granted them ; behold in hall and nook 
Of simpler life, yea everywhere, the charmed book ! 



EL NUEl^O MUNDO 39 

XXXIV. 

Voyagings forth to the east and wonder-tales 
Of golden monarchs in clime-favored lands ! 
The western ocean licks its sparkling sands 
With tongues of promise ; round the globed earth sails 
Wide forethought fearless ; all the eastern gales 
Fraught with the glow of story waft the oars 
On westward paths unto the rose-brimmed A^ales 
Whither quick fancy lifts its wings and soars ; 
Upon one soul more high 
Than the ensphering sky, 
One heart great to include hope's boundless shores, 
And prophecy's divinely fashioned lores, 
Rose the entrancing vision ; presage he 
Of wonders and achievements yet to be ; 
Into the vasty dark his ship pursued its way. 
Secure that westward was the spring of man's bright day! 



II. 

THE MAN. 

The sun set, but set not his hope; 
Stars rose; his faith was earlier up; 
Fixed on the enormous galaxy, 
Deeper and older seemed his eye; 
And matched his sufferance sublime 
The taciturnity of time. 

EMERSON, 



THE MAN. 



I. 



Who kno^^s the secret of the sunrise ? who 
Shall say what splendor of the exhaustless sun 
Across the sombre waiting skies shall run? 
Who knows the point from which the first wind blew 
That brought the hidden sky again to view ? 

On what far tip of Ocean's many waves 
Fell the first moonbeam ? or what drop of dew 
Hid first amid the rose's petals, slaves 
To the sweet dream of love 
Her coming forth hath wove ? 
What edge of storm struck first the trembling knaves 
Who king earth's follies, and what yawn of graves 
Oped first to enclose them from the lightning stroke 
Fallen and quivering? or what first ray broke 
From what far heavens to shine within the hearts of men 
And bring them back to life and truth and joy again? 

n. 

Surely the ages climb unto the Deed ! 
Beneath the sod the slow seed bursts and toils, 
The laboring spirit laughs at vain recoils 



44 EL hlUEyO MUNDO 

On its intention ; still the patient need 
Moulds the great world and bids arise, exceed, 

The light that darkling lay amid dense scorn ; 
Denials perish of its right to lead 
To spaces where its glow increased to morn 
Is promise of the day 
Having the word to say 
Which leaves old crimes dissea.ted and forlorn, 
While faith resurgent in the just is born ; 
As the earth's rivers flow" unto the sea, 
Time's unseen tides unto the yet to be, 
So might and things and life speed to the centre where 
The new achievement leaps forth to the sun and air. 

III. 

Deep in one heart the fateful future bides, 
A point of expectation and of thought. 
Which have this frail and slender vessel wrought 
For their enswathement ; his the dream that rides 
Into the haven where its storm-swept sides 

May wreathe themselves in flowers of triumph won ; 
Deep in his soul the new evangel hides 
Toward which the confluent streams of hope have run 
Since light was on the sea 
Where his great task should be ; 
Upon that suffering head the winds maj^ beat 
Whitening his locks, and the unwearying feet 
May tread the ways of failure, and his eyes 
May see through tears morn after morn arise. 
But all the stars of heaven and the sun's swiftest fires 
Bring on the hour which shall respond to his desires. 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 45 

IV. 

Italia ! with full hands you have ever come 
Unto the feast of nations, rise once more, 
Be your grand self that all men may adore; 
Your cry of war in olden days struck dumb 
The dwellers of the farthest earth ; your sum 
Of glories made a crown for your fair brow 
Which was the light of law and masterdom 
Burning within our house of rule even now ; 
Your Church's holy flame 
Made clear the sacred name 
When darkness held the lands ; later your vow 
Unto high beauty led you to endow 
The joy of men with its best heritage 
Of picture and of marble ; and your rage 
Of large beneficence had not completely won 
Its height of giving had you urged not forth your son 

V. 

To find the newer world far in the west 
Toward which some instinct in the heart of man 
Had pointed since the flow of time began ; 

The brooding boy beside your waves sat blest 

In a large dream of earth's alluring best, 
A forefeel of the way his ships must go, 

Borne on the treacherou^s subsidence and crest 
Into the light that later eyes should know ; 
Within him burned and thrilled 
The purposes world-willed 



46 EL NUEVO MUNDO 

For which all skies are globed and all winds blow ; 
Son of a sailor-city and the foe 
Of whatso night hung over distant seas 
And hid frwn sight uncaptived lands and leas, 
His thought surged far and high and gazed upon of stars 
Virginal, which beaconed him from forth their speeding cars. 

VI. 

What the great halls of learning told his soul 

Of mystic project and alert command, 

The golden memories of sighted land 
By ancient wanderers on the toss and roll 

Of half forgotten waves, what murmuring stole 

Upon him of the vaguely-looming fate 

That was to be his anguish and his goal, 

Found in him the resolve whose form and date 

Are not the fruit of time 

And grow within a clime 

Which has heaven's smile for sky ; calmly he sate 

And what was kin unto that mood and mate 

Came to his hand and gave its message up, 

As one drinks wine from out a jeweled cup. 

And he went forth strong in the truth and firmly bent 

To search for lore of the far realm where'er he went. 

VII. 

The sea knew well her master ; from her came 
A voice of urgence and a cry that stung 
His heart to answer and about him clung 

A host of visionings that roused to flame 



EL NUEl^O MUNDO 47 

His sense of kingshij) ; his the hand to tame 

Her wild iipleapings, make her bear the yoke, 
And fa^vn about the keels in happy shame 
That into her close Tvestern secrets broke ; 
He knew her scorn and smile 
And fathomed every wile, 
Treading in joy the hollowed pine or oak ; 
The astonished sailors felt the peerless stroke 
Of still assurance when the headland rose 
Before them and the morning brought swift close 
To mutinous fury facing the near Afric sand 
And impotent to make him seek the wished-for strand. 

VIII. 

He held the wonder in his heart and soon 
From all the winds ca me confirmation strong 
To bear his swift previsionings along ; 
He followed every track beneath the moon 
And sought from south to north whatever rune 
Deciphered showed the path he was to tread; 
Nor any region might refuse the boon 
Unto his asking ; forth his steps were led 
Unto the extreme shore 
That then the honor wore 
Of searchings far and wide into the dread 
And awful marvels that the ocean bred ; 
And knowledge came to aid him and her speech 
Pointed unto the fruitage in his reach; 
The noble Florentine, the traveler of the skies, 
Like a new planet s^w the new West glow and rise. 



48 EL NUEFO MUNDO 

IX. 

The very light was filled with fair sea tales 
As if the sun were leagued with his chief hope; 
A luminous mist of story and of trope 
Swept through the lands and girt his visioned sails 
With the exalting bliss that never fails. 

What if he knew not half the magic lore 
Which came down wafted on the freighted gales 
From the dim past, yet Plato's vanished shore 
And the stern Roman's dream 
Seen in the stormless stream 
Of light prophetic, and what picture more 
Shone to complete the world, rejoiced to soar 
Into the heaven of his musiiigs, cling 
To his enlinking thought, and there to sing 
A music that by many had been softly heard 
And iterant in refrain the East had West averred. 

X. 

Mornwards were realms of fairy ; far Cathay 
Drew with its towers and singular roofs of gold, 
And farther towards the springs of light the bold 

Discoverer saw the foam that starred the way 

To great Zipangu ; who should say him nay ? 
In Asia's dimness potent Prester John 

Ruled still (so spoke their dreamings) and the day 
Of rosy lustre had not fled and gone 
From glorious Kublai Khan 
Whose width of regnance ran 



EL NUEl^O MUNDO 49 

Unto the hither sea ; his thoughts sped on 
Across the sun-kissed waves and dwelt upon 
The fortunes of the lucky brothers twain 
And Rubruquis and more whose deeds were vain 
Because the hated Turk usurped the Orient; 
Upon the western skies his hopes were set and bent. 

XI. 

Scant was the bread he w^on, and hard the toil 
Of many askings ; you might surely deem 
The country would not unresponsive seem 
That bore the Prince of Seamen and whose spoil 
Of treasures won with strength no storm could foil 
Called his work hers who passed the haunted cape 
To distant Calicut ; but the stern coil 
Of sharp denial gave no sure escape 
From its coercive prison ; 
The light was not arisen 
Upon his weary darkness ; many an ape 
01 dullard greatness would yet grin and gape 
Upon the calm severity that held 
Its course unshaken, patient, and unquelled, 
Scorning the Portuguese device which basely sought 
To grasp the certain prize and bring his life to naught. 

xn. 

But Love looked on his eager step and brow 
And sang him melodies to lull and cheer 
His bitter waiting ; children blithe and dear 

Climbed on his knee, and made the time allow 



50 EL NUEVO MUNDO 

A respite from the deep and mastering vow ; 

Nobly formed was he, strong and large of frame, 
The potent eye clear with Hght to endow 
A darkling multitude ; the furrows came 
Full early and the face 
Revealed across its space 
The unresting purpose and the mind of flame ; 
A vigorous soul that saw the heights of fame, 
Being part of large intents ; and if at last 
Love in another guise beside him passed. 
Be sure heaven frowned not on that simple paradise 
Nor gazed upon it with stern unrelenting eyes. 

XIII. 

Moreover when he claimed the right to rule 
The realms he found and portions of the store 
Of riches they gave up, what did he more 
Than emphasize the part he played ? The cool 
Winds of the morning sweeping o'er the pool. 
That seeks to hold the sunrise on its breast. 
Capricious, wayward, yet are not the fool 
To yield one atom of the waters' best 
Which they beheve is theirs ; 
No flower the summer bears 
But calls the sun his own, and the wide west 
In days to come should each with the all invest; 
He was the master of the islands far, 
He was the late and slowly rising star, 
Beneath which burst their beauty from the darkness' thrall, 
And he of right was ruler and great admiral. 



EL NUEl^O MUNDO 51 



XIV. 



Forth fared he from the land that knew him not 
And soug:ht the region of brave-voiced romance, 
About which all the winged seasons dance 
In lyric joyance, Spain, whose lofty lot 
Was to conclude the conflict unforgot ; 

Again the sense-steeped and luxurious creed 
That rose in Asia, bred amid her hot 
And desert sands, contended with the need 
For nobler self-possession, 
And spirit's free confession 
Of firm allegiance to the truth whose meed 
Is to obtain the will and strength to bleed 
For those who toil and mourn ; great-hearted Spain, 
Fronting the expectant and sonorous main, 
Had the keen sight to pierce the mists which overhung 
The outer ocean, taught by the unfearing tongue 

XV. 

That had made Europe hear the constant story ; 

She bent at first a sombre deep surprise 

Upon the whitened hair and anxious eyes ; 
Her sages and her counselors, old and hoary, 
Sat gazing from their wisdom's promontory 

Steadfastly seaward, but a shadow lay 
Upon the outlook's still invisible glory, 

And they believed not in the nearing day ; 
But there were those who felt 
The mystery that dwelt 



52 EL NUEyO MUNDO 

In his firm words, the prince, of amplest sway, 
Medina^Celi, and, keen in the fray, 
The third king of the realm, Mendoza, priest 
And statesman, witli the Queen's advisers, least 
Inclined to marvels, Santangel, Quintanilla strong. 
And the imperious Marchioness whose life's rich song 

XVI. 

Answered his own ; but now the Crescent pale 
Shrank behind clouds of war, and the pure Queen 
Held victory grasped ; at Santa Fe were seen 

The royal armament whose stern avail 

Shattered the Saracen kingdom and saw quail 
The Oriental life before the sweep 

Of nobleness that dwelt behind the mail 
Of lords and knights ; for them the moving deep 
Held regions secret yet 
But where their bold hopes set 
Should come to sight in forms wherein the leap 
Of impulse might find joyance and still keep 

Friendship with law that fetters and makes free; 

For them ere long the sun's unloosened sea 

Should flow round Moorish towers wherefrom burns forth 
the cross, 

Symbol of hope and love that grow and know not loss. 

XVII. 

But not to you, O Europe, came the task 
To build the commonweal that shall endure 
And ever brighten till its action pure 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 53 

Grows even as time itself must seek and ask ; 
Power knew not what was hidden behind the mask 

The ages wove for it to wear, strong Love, 
That throws from off its brow the glittering casque, 
And fills the world with the clear light thereof ; 
They built the narrow cell 
Wherein the accents fell 
Of Judges whom no mildness of the dove 
Kept from the serpent's keenness ; forth they drove 
The patient wisdom of a people sad 
With the unfinished pain their drear past had, 
And whom the New World, too, should free from the dark 

doom 
Which wove around them centuries of grief and gloom. 

xvni. 

Thus the past clutched the throat of wise intent, 
And murdered Spain when her hand held the kej's 
To unlock the future's happier mysteries ; 

And the defeated Moor saw^ once more bent 

The nations at the shrine from whence are sent 
Soul-slajing vapors and a shuddering dread 

Of lordly deeds for which all time is meant. 
Europe had a long weary path to tread 
Unto that far seen goal 
For which the New World sole 
Waited, and unto which her life is wed ; 
O gray discoverer there among the dead, 

Or those whose unsealed ej^es behold the all, 

Great Sailor and the Future's Admiral, 



54 EL NUEyO MUNDO 

You see what land you found— not Asia's mere decay, 
But the Achievement's best, and gold of the New Day! 

XIX. 

Yet had his sun not risen ; from his lips 
Fell in swift fervid accents his desire, 
And Talavera's eyes of smouldering fire 
Shone with a myriad doubts, a dark eclii)se 
Of faith hung round him, and the longed-for ships 

Ploughed but the ocean of his star-lit dreams ; 
Time had not tried his soul enough with whips 
And scorns, for so the rigid Master deems 
He makes his servants fit 
For the hard toils which knit 
The perfect garment, firm and without seams. 
The world shall wear at last ; his hurt brain teems 
With indignation and he turns away 
Undaunted, and he girds him for the fray 
Once more ; but first he hears the words of his good friend, 
Marchena, strong with trust in the far-shining end. 

XX. 

His wanderings reached at last the lonely door 

Of La Rabida ; there the silence came 

Grateful upon his grief's consuming flame ; 
The simple cloisters gave him peace once more 
And the live ocean rolled up to the shore 

Its ceaseless voice of promise ; through the pines 
The sun looked down benignant, and the roar 

Of the far world of rivalries declines 



EL NUEyO MUNDO 55 

Into an inward murmur, 
With each day growing firmer, 
Whose sense is conquest at the last ; as shines 
A lamp across a rocky path's confines 
Making the outlet clear, Juan Perez' faith, 
Who heard him and conceived his words no wraith 
Of fevered fancy but the very truth, w^as light 
To bring the Queen to know his purposes aright. 

XXI. 

O noble priest and friend ! you reached the court 
And turned the Queen from conquest's mid career 
To hearken ; other triumphs glittered clear 
Before her, and again from Huelva's port 
The seeker came ; he saw Granada's fort 
Open its gates reluctant, and the king, 
El Zogoibi, bcM^ail his bitter sort 
And loss which made the rich TV Deujns ring 
When on La Vela's to^ver 
The cross bloomed like a flower 
Of heaven's own growing ; but the sudden spring. 
Loud with birds silent long that strove to sing, 
After the winter's weary voiceless reign. 
Was overcast with storms of cold disdain ; 
Haughtily forth he fared and reached Granada's gates 
When the clouds lifted and the persecuting fates 



XXII. 



Relented from their fury ; for the Queen 
Listened unto the urgings manifold 



56 EL NUEVO MUNDO 

Of Santangel, and counsel, wise and bold, 
Of the far-seeing Marchioness, whose keen 
Divinings pierced the misty ocean's screen 

And felt the deed must surely come to pass ; 
So they recalled him, and his life's changed scene 

Grew bright with blooms and smile of thickening grass ; 
O royal woman then 
Your hand received again 
The keys of a great realm ; in the clear glass 
Of actions yet to be whose fires amass 
Infinite stores of impulse toward the good, 
Your image permanent lies ; forth from the wood 
Of beasts malicious and the unrelenting dread 
You showed the way, but sought not from the gloom to tread. 

XXIII. 

The wind was fair, the ships lay in the bay. 
And the blue sky looked down upon the earth; 
Prophetic time laughed toward the nearing birth 

Of the strong child with whom should come a day 

That dulled all earlier hours. Forth on the waj^ 
With holy blessings said, and bellied sails, 

And mounting joy that knows not let nor stay! 
Lo ! the undaunted purpose never fails ! 
O patient master, seer. 
For whom the far is near. 
The vision true, and the mere present pales 
Its lustre, what mild seas and blossomed vales 

Awaited you? haply a paradise 

But not the one which drew your swerveless eyes ; 



EL NUEFO MUNDO 57 

Could you have known what lands were there beyond the 

main, 
You surelier would have turned to gladsomeness from pain. 

XXIV. 

Light-bearer ! this did you hope indeed to be, 
Freeing the holy tomb from dominance base 
And cleansing earth's bent brow from dark disgrace; 
Waited not Prester John across the sea 
With eager sons under his canopy 

Of gold and on his emerald-studded throne? 
Wealth should you have and wide-spread empery 
To bring bowed hearts to Truth who heard their moan 
And made it yours to lift 
The heavy clinging drift 
From their sad days, the many hearts who lone 
And anguished suffered falsehood's monotone ; 
Such was your dream, O strong deliverer! 
But your achievement infinite-mightier 
Planted the tree of Freedom in its foredoomed soil 
And wrested from old 111 the remnant of his spoil. 

XXV. 

What room for cold detraction's voice? What gain 
In finding weakness where so much of strength 
Reached the far end it sought so long at length? 

Grant that his soul had here and there a stain. 

The splendor of his deed must still remain 
The clear avouchment of his manhood's height; 

That cannot be the truth which would constrain 



58 EL NUE^O MUNDO 

The mind to dull details and hold from sight 
The life that is the whole 
Vision ; the mists uproll 
From the wide landscape and the generous light 
Bathes in its affluence hill and stream ; the night 
Seeks its lair far bej^ond the glowing earth ; 
Here is the J03' of daring and of worth ; 
If mists cling to the trees or thin clouds yet obscure, 
We ask not in the day's impendence white and pure. 

XXVI. 

T\^'o worlds, from the beginning sundered, flow 
Into the stream that is the planet's life, 
A strength showing sweet peace brought forth of strife; 

The giant winds upon their wanderings go 

From the grim lands of changeless iron snow 
Unto the climes where rules the centred sun, 

And everywhere the exulting nations know 
That their approaching Destiny is one ; 
This hath the Sea-King wrought 
Whose forAvard leaping thought 
Felt that man's victory Avas but half ^^ay done 
Unless both realms were intimatel^^ ^^on 

Unto the mightj^ goodness which is God 

And Lord of Historj-'s utmost period; 

His hand conjoined the parted continents once for all, 
He looked for land and lo ! a nobler spirit-fall ! 



III. 

THE DEED. 

To cross the seas of life, naught suffices save the bark of 
faith. In that bark the undoubting Columbus set sail, and 
at his journey's end found a new world. Had that world 
not then existed, God would have created it in the solitude 
of the Atlantic, if to no other end than to reward the faith 
and constancy of that great man. 

EMILIO CASTELAR. 



THE DEED. 



I. 



Reach but the heights of truth and every star 
Trembles and shines for aims you seek and love ; 
The winds become the pursuivants thereof, 
Their blare triumphant heralds you afar; 
No danger can affright, no power can bar 

The stern endeavor leagued with very thought, 
The impassioned hope that is right's avatar 
And sees its substance surely wrought 
Into the w^eb of time ; 
He breathes the superb clime 
Of certain victory, who, borne by naught 
From the pursuit his loftiest dreams have sought> 
Follows the rocky path, however steep, 
Which lovers of mankind perceive and keep ; 
All forces of the land and sea and air conspire 
To bring to pass what feeds eternity's desire. 



II. 



The soft acclaim of heaven accompanies 
The advent of the hero on the earth ; 
Nothing of wonder may attest his worth 
Or break upon and shake the revelries 
Of arrogant pleasure which concludes not his 

61 



63 EL NUEk^O MUNDO 

To ring the knell of what it holds most dear; 
But where the secret place of potence is, 
And where the heart of life beats high and clear, 
The light's intenser glow 
And joy's superber flow 
Betoken triumph gainst the ancient fear ; 
The night is sorely stricken and her drear 
Control is nearly over ; every stream 
Speeds with new strength in the sun's strenuous stream, 
Defeat beholds with dark chagrin how all his skill 
Of strange undoing served to work the sovereign will. 

III. 

Now the swift hours seemed friendly ; everywhere 
Smiled portents of success to the emprise 
Which looked for sunrise where the low day dies 
Into the seas incarnadine ; to dare 
Was certain conquest ; earth was all aware 

Of the endeavor, and her heart was thrilled 
With mighty impulse that her son should fare 
Straight to the doom she long had loved and willed ; 
He was the very mid 
Of the intentions hid 
Within her bosom till her hands had spilled 
Enough of marvels and the unfulfilled 
Desires of her bold manchild sought the realms 
Beyond the sea with courage-governed helms 
Where he could build anew, free from the past's grim 

wrong, 
A home his soul might dwell in, life's last burst of song. 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 63 



IV. 



Now the winds rose from out the storied east, 
Freighted with all tlie perfumed memories 
That murmured in their brains like happy bees 
Seeking the hives w^herein the store increased 
Of earth's best products was set for the feast 

Whereby all men recline and each is king ; 
The light wind freshened while the monk and priest 
Watched from his height the vessels vanishing ; 
The sea was fair as youth, 
The wind was firm as truth, 
The cloven waters with a swish and swing 
Around the ship's sides seemed to close and sing ; 
The known shores faded and the speeding days 
Brought them unto the skyward-reaching blaze 
Of islanded sheer Teneriffe that pierced the night 
With its sharp cone and thrilled the unaccustomed sight. 



Forth into unknown seas ! and who shall say 

What keel clove those forgetful waves before? 

Had the dark-haired and slim Phoenician's prore 
Seen creaming from its thrust the fitful play 
Of those unraging waters ? or the way 

Been conscious of the Greekish mariner 
Whose fancj^ wantoned in the golden day 

Of lost Atlantis ? or the storm and stir 
Of an obscure unrest 
Driven a king from blest 



64 EL NUEVO MUNDO 

And firm-built power to see through misted blur 
Strange coasts arise and many an islander? 
The smoothly-slipping rippled element 
Seemed false-benignant in its calm consent ; 
What vague forebodings held their inmost hearts appalled 
When sea was all that shone upon their sight enthralled? 

VI. 

The sky above them glittered clear and pure, 
The vast horizons scarcely shut them in ; 
Had the strange path an end ? was theirs to win 
A shore beyond that solitude? Secure 
In the far-stretching distance lay the lure 

Which siren-wise laughed in the present calm ? 
Or did the silver monotone endure 
Until its splendor ached, and the fierce qualm 
Wrought madness in the brain? 
Farther upon the plain 
Of liquid lucence and no sign of balm 
Unto the growing fear and lifted palm ; 
Held the same law in the same certain strength 
The new and old ? or was change here at length ? 
These treacherous waves perchance rolled on no human 

shore, 
And vaguely westward was the infinite's opened door? 

VII. 

A broken mast tossed loose from w^ave to wave! 
A sign from the as yet unfathomed sea 
And menace to their rash temerity ! 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 65 

For who might bind her as a willing slave 
To his devisings ? was she not one grave 
Pellucid, fragrant, lambent everywhere, 
Covetous of life and impotent to save? 
Still the quick birds were fearless and the air 
Upbore their flutterings, 
And the increasing rings 
Of their large flight portended something fair. 
Pelican, tunny fish, aught that could bear 
A happy presage woke a fleeting thrill 
Of the old hope which dimmed and lessened still ; 
What might survive upon the stretching lone expanse 
Save the light tribes of air, and fishes' darting dance? 

VIII. 

But lo ! the sea became a tangled mass, 
A floating meadoT^ of unnameable weeds, 
A sterile growth answering no man's needs, 
A demon-fashioned obstacle to pass, 
A moving desert covered with strange grass, ' 

Another horror Tvhich the ^water spawns, 
That aggregate of drops more clear than glass, 
But hiding in its clearness fifty dawns 
Of ominous miracle. 
An ever variant spell 
Which while it brings to sight its Tvrecks, yet fawns 
Upon its victims ; through the yielding lawns, 
Starred Avith red berries like dull spots of fire. 
That were the signs of its condign desire, 
They cut their way at last, but now the winds were still ; 
What next? when would the sea's wild fancy have its will? 



66 EL hlUEyO MUNDO 

IX. 

Drifting slowly unto their doom ; the glow 
Of the smooth waters to the silent right, 
Leftwards the shine of the unvarying light, 
Into the very void they seemed to go ; 
No hand with land the wastes had laughed to sow ; 

There was around them a crystalline peace. 
That grew more weird than night when storm-winds 

blow; 
They might turn backwards and thus gain release, 
But who could surely feel 
That the reversM keel 
Might not find gulfs where even time would cease ? 
At night the burnished stars with soft increase 
Of flame made the far reaches visible ; 
They were a-float within a widening dell 
Of death's sheer imminence ; even as a flaw is found 
Dimming and shadowy inside a diamond's round. 

X. 

Wherefore had shone the baleful light on high? 

The meteor that fell from its steep place 

And hissing met the sea's uplifted space? 
Were the stars fixed in yonder high-domed sky ? 
And whence did the unchanging breezes fly ? 

Hard sailing in the teeth of winds ; and Spain, 
Fair land of memories, both arm and eye 

Of Europe, like a dream at morn that vain 
And fragile passed and sped, 
Or soul mixed with the dead 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 67 

And mounting upward to unfleeting gain, 
Would hardly greet them more beyond the plain 
Of sinuous waves into whose spell they swept ; 
Here all was other ; not even the needle kept 
Her truth in the mad realms ; yet better to be lost 
On the track homewards than on this grim sin be tost. 

XI. 

But the Commander swerved not from his trust, 
His prayers were answered while he uttered them, 
His eyes were fixed beyond the sunset's hem, 
And the fates surelj^ could not be unjust : 
His thoughts were truth itself, and so there must 
Rise from the deeps an answer clear and meet; 
He calmed the sailors' dreads and often thrust 
Their glooms aside ^with foregleams of the feat 
Which all time should record 
Their braveries' fit award ; 
His skill pictured for them the toTvn and street 
Wherethrough the Khan life, fierce and golden, beat; 
What fear of fire stones falling from above? 
He knew them T\^ell ; besides the tomb of Love 
Who died for men must needs have freeing ; Holy Writ 
Sanctioned their distant search and prophesied of it. 

XII. 

Yet the fierce anguish of the homeless waste 
Grew^ stronger, and they rose in scorn and hate 
Against their chief, whose madness, soon or late, 

Must bring the doom which they so long had faced 



68 EL NUEJ/O MUNDO 

Half helplessly ; they would, no more disgraced 
And shamedly hearkening his obscure behests, 
Feel their firm wits by his crazed dreams displaced, 
Nor seek these wests eked out by farther wests ; 
And if death came, alack I 
It should be on the track 
Homewards ; let him go forth on dangerous quests 
With those unweeting that his interests 
Were not the heaven's, but intense search for gold 
Of which low-breathed secrets had been told 
Into his ear by lying pilots who had been 
But a short way upon the ocean's swirl and sin. 

xni. 

The Admiral heard their loud complaints and called 
Unto the ships accompanying his ; 
In solemn council all their miseries 
Were spoken and the demon deep unwalled 
Tossed round them ; then the Pinzon unappalled 

Voiced the great need from off the swaying deck 
And for a brief time held them disenthralled, 
Obedient to their Master's word and beck ; 
"Senor, some two or three 
Of these might feed the sea ; 
And if the hangman's office seem a fleck 
Upon you which you love not. they shall reck 
Not long of mere delay ; my brother here 
And I will bear down on them swiftly, cheer 
Their dark despair, and land them in another world! 
The flag we bear is but above success unfurled !" 



EL NUEVO MUNDO 69 

XIV. 

They cowered abashed and the touched Admiral said : 
"A few days more we will our course pursue 
And the near hour will give the land to view ; 
Such do I deem the present likelihead ; 
But if these last few hours are fully sped 

And only sky and water greet us, I 
Will change the sailing by your longings led." 
Then Pinzon once more raised his voice and high 
Above the wind and wave 
Sounded the message brave : 
"Forward! Forward! Forward!" a clarion cry 
Circling around between the sea and sky. 
Whatever deeds darkened your latter days, 
That courage lifts you, Pinzon, past all praise; 
Your haughty spirit gave its fire when needed most, 
And to those dauntless words reached forth the enamored 
coast! 

XV. 

And later came the cry of land — perchance 

Because we often see the thing we long 

To see — and the wan Admiral raised the song 
Gloria in Excelsis — and his glance 
Wandered afar where the lit ripples dance ; 

Lo ! there it lay, purple and dim, a cloud 
Hardening to shore with the full-sailed advance ; 

So they all hoped with their pale faces bowed 
And eyes straining and fierce 
Into the depths to pierce ; 



70 EL NUEl^O MUNDO 

Continent was it? or a thick-set crowd 
Of islands? the close flight of birds avowed 
The nearing rest and harbor — thick thej^ came. 
Fluttered and chattered without let or blame ; 
Alack ! the land sank back into the abysses there ; 
The sighing waves beneath and round them nought but air ! 

XVI. ^ 

Even the great heart faltered and at night 
He sat upon the deck and felt the gloom 
Falling around him like a mighty doom ; 
The faint glow on the waters left and right 
Hurt his tense mood and something shut his sight, 

And whether sleep or waking he knew not, 
Or whether it was dark or full of light. 
Or whether earth or other holier spot ; 
But a voice softly spake. 
Nor did the silence break ; 
"Have I not led you? have you too forgot 
How from your childhood I have made your lot 
Mine own, and filled your life with me, and gave 
You toils I needed in my toils to save 
Man from himself? And do you doubt and tremble now? 
Nay, fear not ! Lo ! my certain morning girds your brow !" 

XVII. 

He woke as one who might return from death 
Unto the scenes he knew beneath the sun 
And to far heights his thoughts began to run ; 

His dreams flew past the bounds where tarrieth 



EL hlUEVO MUNDO 71 

The mind of men, and over him the breath 

Of the Terrestrial Paradise sped soft, 
And he heard waking what the sweet mouth saith 
Of the pure Mother who sits throned aloft 
And crowned by her own Son ; 
Her radiant smile had won 
His heart to deep allegiance and had oft 
Shone on his darkness and his soul had doffed 
Its sadness , he could wait for many a morn 
With this clear vision ; frequent when the scorn 
Had seemed too much to bear, he had heard murmurs beat 
Within him, and he would the mystic tones repeat 

XA^III. 

Even like the fiery thunderous ones of old 
Who spoke what heaven itself poured through their 

lips. 
Striving to ward their country's near eclipse; 
Ah, if the obscure Future had unrolled 
The stately pageant which she held in fold 

Of dimness, how his full heart must have leapt 
Unto the Hesperian Freedom's morning gold ; 
He would have known that his straight voyage kept 
The road to Paradise 
Indeed, which earthly eyes 
Should see, and the salt tears which time had wept 
Must feel assuaged, for the Republic slept 
Her antenatal slumber and light fell 
Beneath her trembling eyelids, her A/Z's Well! 
Would ring above the expectant lands, and the last birth 
Of national powers arise in stature of her worth. 



73 EL NUEl^O MUNDO 

XIX. 

Perhaps some forefeel of his latter days 
Came over him, Fonseca's tireless hate, 
And all the ills that oft on greatness wait, 
And hardships of triumphant rugged ways; 
And further on the world-wide lamping hlaze 

Of gratitude "svhich circled his bright name ; 
His last doubts vanished and his gaze 
STvept the wide ocean ; he could bear the blame 
Of the dull halting men, 
Who TTould withhold again 
The world from its advancement, and their shame 
Should be his ansTver Tvhen the victory came ; 
He had not failed to hear when his thought spoke, 
He had not failed to read what message broke 
Upon him Trhen the outer life Tv^as quieted 
And his deep heart and deeper truth were \n\.y wed. 

XX. 

Was that a new star in the purple West ? 

Golden and flickering, quenched and full of fire. 

Like an uncertain strengthening desire ? 
It glows above the uttermost dark crest 
Of waters ; O mysterious palimpsest 

Of the round skies, will you not utter clear 
The secret you have shrouded terriblest 

Amid the weltering ocean's vast and fear? 
Is yonder flame the key 
Unto the mystery ? 

The last word in the message darkling here 



EL hlUEyO MUNDO 73 

Which fills the meaning out, repaying drear 
And dim-eyed watching and grim anguishing 
Of the tense soul that now may rise and sing 

Its rich-voiced paean and the heart awake once more 

Into the joy of life from over-cloudings sore? 

XXI. 

Is it a star? its lambent tremulousness 
Melts in the dark around it ! no^v it pales 
And its soft lustre droops and faints and fails ; 
It breaks anew ! it comes like a caress 
From regions of divinest blessedness I 

"Pedro Gutierrez, turn j''Our sight afar! 
What is yon shining oi the floating tress?" 
"I mark the pale far radiance of a star!" 
"Oh, look again, again, 
And call the next of men ! 
Rodrigo of Segovia, past the bar 
Of many waves see you what flashings are?" 
"Nay, good your grace, I see naught but the dark!" 
Forth leaps to leeward the adventurous bark ! 
Lo ! there ! It shines again ! Master, it grows more bright ! 
All men upon your knees ! It is a light ! — a light ! 



IV. 

THE NEW WORLD. 

Come thou whole self of Latter Man ! 
Come o'er thy realm of Good-and-IU, 

And do, thou Self that sayest, I can. 

And love, thou Self that sayest, I will; 

And prove and know Time's worst and best, 

Thou tall young Adam of the West ! 

LAmER. 



THE hIElV ^ORLD. 



I. 



Eastward the dawn and to the west lay land ; 
Oh not Cathay, but a more virgin soil, 
And waiting for the newer faith and toil, 
Responsive to a more august command ; 
Nor here where breezes blew serene and bland 

And the warm sun enlarged from labors rude, 
Upon this river-fed and fruitful strand 
AVhere nothing harsh or stern dared to intrude, 
Was the fair dome to rise. 
But under cloudier skies, 
In which the nobler reach and larger mood 
Should find themselves drawn on and subtly wooed 
To make their dwelling with the whole of man, 
Moulded unto the dream wherein began 
The passion of his life, for from no lesser source, 
Flowed the wide stream of hope and urged its deepening 
course. 



u. 



Once more a portent shone in Germany ; 
For there the Great Reformer rose and stood 
Firm-poised and strong against a very wood 

77 



78 EL NUE^O MUNOO 

Of opposition; no more should there be 
A wall betwixt the soul and verity ; 

In the wide spiritual realms there was no king 
Save God ; life's effort had not been to free 
Mankind for the vain later end to bring 
Upon it servitude 
To a power once imbued 
With the pure love wherewith the seasons sing, 
But now athirst for nile, and carrying 
Base pomp into the sanctuary's mid; 
He could no other do than he was bid 
By the deep voice within, and spirit's rich domain. 
Seen by the eye of faith, lay clear revealed and plain. 

III. 
Also the soul confronted in its might 
The shows of all the world, and dared to say 
That there was naught beneath the eye of day 
Which fell not in its province, and its right 
To judge what truth was came not from the light 

Flickering alone in cloisters ; every man 
Stood in the hall of Good, and his own sight 
Eead the true message that on high began ; 
The young strong cities rose, 
And yet another close 
Of music through the deepening chorus ran. 
And peaceful toil pressed forward in the van ; 
The castles fro^vned upon their rough hill sides, 
And the hurt villein looked upon the ride.s 
Of glittering lords and ladies with a half despair. 
Then left the plough and sought the city's freer air. 



EL NUEl^O MUNDO 79 

IV. 

Through the rapt ages sped the dream and grew 
More certain with the pregnant flight of time 
And set the seasons in a richer rhyme ; 
From every star that shone and wind that blew 
The intelligence came, and all men surely knew 
That the deep self was height and lucid peak 
From whence the landscape took proportion due, 
And justice was the good they were to seek ; 
Mere trust in rule was dead, 
And it had basely led 
Into the gardens withered now and bleak 
Wherein too long mad kings had joyed to wreak 
Their wanton fancies and their wild caprice 
On men whose hands had given long life and lease 
To crime and shamelessness ; the flame-lit end was here; 
Each man decreed himself, and sovereigned all the sphere. 

V. 

The thunder rolled above impetuous France, 
The earth shook in the storm, and savage cries 
Of the roused nations answered to the skies; 

The thrones of Europe trembled, and the lance 

Of Freedom clove the darkness with the glance 
Of its divine illumination, yet 

Too fierce and strenuous was the griin advance, 
And by too many foes self-made beset ; 
So Victory spurned the earth 
As of too little worth 
For her long dwelling ; and the ground was wet 



80 EL NUEVO MUhDO 

With curdliDg dews the \rays would fain forget ; 
The scomful sun looked down in pain and wrath 
On lands that trod the new-old hatrful path : 
A sigh came from the seas, and everrAvhere was heard 
The cry. "How long, O Freedom, is your reign deferred!'' 

VI. 

O sunset land I to von the days have given 
The noblest labor, the sererest meed. 
The Consommation and the Mighty Deed ! 
Ton shall from all cast ofi the manacles riven 
In the sad past, and time's old sorrows drivai 

B^ore like leaves upon the antnnin blast. 
And memories of crimes and wrongs nnshriven. 
In the fierce light that your clear eyes will cast, 
Mnst se^ the open grave 
From which no later wave 
Of shame or loUy can revive them : fast 
Shan they lie there nntil a springtime vast 
Sweeps over them and makes them part of life 
That has arisen fnll-sinewed from the strife. 
Yonr surging life. O Mother, trinmph-voieed and great, 
Shaper of man's firm welfare, Bmlder of the State '. 

xn. 

What have you not that kisses of the sun 
Deiight to fondle ? waters, large and fair. 
And golden r^ons of the variant air : 
Both oceans find their daily loves undone 
Unless their songs within your ears are spun ; 



EL NUEl^O MUNDO 81 

Your mountains soar aboTe you, calm and tall, 
And lure until their silences have won 
Your hearts to spiritual heights which hold and 
thrall ; 

Your prairies like a bride 
Laugh to the blue skies w^ide 
With their abundance ; no fate can befall 
You save the further rich behest and call 
Of wisdomed bringing what you have in fee 
Unto all lands, mild peace and liberty, 
And nobler beauty, purer song, and juster sight 
Of the deep secrets hid within the Infinite Light I 

vin. 

O stern-browed Heroine far across the sea, 
Your daughter knows your blood within her veins, 
And hearkens to the ever-ringing strains 
Your voice has poured to honor Liberty ; 
Her have you "worshiped and you still must be 

Helper and guide upon the luminous way ; 
What you have done to make the nations free. 
Believing ever in the sun-filled day 

That shall pervade at length 
Mankind in all its strength, 
Named you the first of those for Tvhom the play 
Of forces bringing triumph sped the ray 
Of the result divine ; we feel you here 
Within us, and the hour cannot appear, 
O England, which will not turn youwards and repeat 
How your grand life's stream flows within us pure and 
sweet. 



82 EL NUEyO MUNDO 



IX. 



The secret found at last ! obedience 
To nothing alien but the very God 
Fluent throughout the majestic period ; 
The soul of man and life one stream whose whence 
Is in the light of Good's pre-eminence ; 

The heart of each co-equal with the Avhole 
That round it flows in joyous turbulence; 
The soul of man one self-divided soul, 
Whose parts innumerous are 
Conjoined as light to star, 
A star whose beams around it speed and roll, 
Each beam all light and true as steel to pole 
Unto its source of pure yet mixfed flame, 
Each beam all light reflected to the same 
Glory and fervor whence its dreams have ever been. 
And fleeting back from being's utmost verge and sin ! 

X. 

O heart of time and secret of the world 
Revealed at last beneath the happy sun, 
O wide-branched blossom of the ages won 

Into vast growth, since the first dew lay pearled 

Upon the first leaf to the light uncurled. 
Since sense of spiritual search was anywhere, 

You have gleamed forth, and ray by ray unfurled 
Your crescent shining to the ambient air ; 
Now we behold you sure. 
The spirit and the lure 
Of all endeavor, not a mere nation fair, 



EL NUE^O MUNDO 83 

Not one bright flower, but, clustered rich and rare, 
A flower of flowers, a petalled sisterhood, 
The torch-like centre of the heavy wood 
Of history, giving light upon the living past 
And chiefest glow on upward-leading pathways cast ! 

XI. 

In days of Greece whose eyes prophetic saw 
The spiritual sphere disclosed, and whose life rose 
With youthful ardor past the wizard shows 
Of sense into that region of clear awe, 
A flower of states whose petals drank the law 

Of one strong stem half stayed the night which fell 
Too soon, and charmed the savage winds from flaw, 
Nearing its burst, to silence ; but too Tvell 
For the rathe hour was planned 
The interlinked command ; 
Also the mountaineers who feel the spell 
Of their wild land's enchanting miracle 
Have Avoven a light of rule whose distinct hues 
Conjoined have been a beacon to diffuse 
A hope among the watchers that the delaying morn 
Would surely come when the Republic should be born. 



XII. 



Now the Republic has indeed beheld 
The vapors vanish from the western seas, 
And day's young magic flash across the leas 
AVhich the rapt fancy of the climes of eld 
Longed for and prayed ; those tense desires unquelled 



81 EL NUEVO MUNDO 

By disappointment, merciless defeat. 
Hare spmng from every overthrow to weld 
Anew the dream for which their passion beat ; 
Of the Discoverer's heart 
Those purposes had part. 
And led him forth with unexhausted heat 
To make strong Europe's hope the New World's feat 
What the worn past has been anhungered for. 
Holding all action its sure servitor, 
The form of mle to whose large beauty men must kneel 
Appears, a State of States, the Nationed Commonweal I 



XTTT . 



Not tower but city cro^med is your grand brow. 
Your limbs prodigious in the strength of youth, 
And in your eyes the awfulness of truth. 
Not mail-clad, bringer of the olive-bough. 
Holy and tender, with lips sweet from vo^v 

Of help to all men in all continents. 
And gracious hands of blessing to endow 
With life the hopes to which all time consents ; 
- TRe thunder of the mirth 
Of the awakening earth 
Hailed yon from mountains with their snowy tents. 
And utmost shores the scarce-sailed sea indents ; 
At night the passion of the stars looked down 
And laughed to see you, and the sombre frown 
That gloomed the past-rid lands faded in joy which came 
From you, O mightiest-thewed, and source of sptritnal 
flame! 



EL hlUEVO MUNDO 85 



XIV. 



Yet was the struggle hard ; not a mere gift 
Is the great strength which leads to masterdom ; 
Wisdom and just assurance only come 
With victory over sordid ills that drift 
Around us, and the courages that lift 

Into the high are their own best reward. 
The agonies were hers which burn and sift, 
And her blind powers sometimes held vain accord 
With those whose scornful boast 
Was that thej^ harmed her most ; 
Around her beat the many-headed horde 
Of envy, malice, hatred, and self-scored 
She lay with bleeding wounds ; the battle's rage 
But made her firmer, and the dearer wage 
Of nobler reverence, self-control, and sight of good. 
Was hers as she emerged from that dense earlier wood. 

XV. 

One stain remained upon her brow, the mark 

Of sin against the soul of brotherhood ; 

She who was Freedom's, what fate abject could 
Ally her with the baser crew whose dark 
Control plucked selfhood from the crouched and stark 

Corrupted ones, debased from man to thing, 
And wreaking on their sterile brains the cark 

And care which are the signs of travailing 
With birth of loftier will? 
Yet the hour came to spill 

Upon the ground her life-blood and to bring 



86 EL hlUEyO MUhJDO 

Her dearest to the altar that the spring 
Might be spring unto all ; with forehead bare. 
Washed clean of the defilement, miracle-fair, 
She stands, the shadow in her eyes of anguish fled, 
Strengthened and conscious of hei-self , her hopes, her dead ! 

XTI. 

But newer griefs assail her, lust of gold. 
The gi-eed that would have all the world its own 
And silences its ear to sound of moan 
Falling from lips of Yictim, savage hold 
Of temporal goods, that grows an uncontrolled 

And never-ending madness, these grim ills 
Sprang up around her, taunting, scornful, bold ; 
Whither have fled the stern and potent wills 
Who knew to curb the brood 
Of evil-doers rude ? 
Shine forth with glance of perfect scorn which kills, 
O Titaness, and from the hand that tills 
These monstrous fields, strike the ill gotten gain. 
Be loud upon them and transform, restrain, 
ShoTv forth the double crime, the land nor grows nor lives, 
Which learns not hovr to steer 'twixt such alternatives. 

xvn. 

Why should the hungry poor groan in your borders, 
And toil raise gaunt and angry liands of appeal 
For wiser guerdon from the commonweal? 
Shall you be blamed like those whom the recorders 
Write in the Book of Grief as vain awarders 



EL NUEFO MUNDO 87 

Of the great good which is the lot of all? 
Nay, Mother, help ; surely your deep skill orders 
Your realm so that the noblest issues fall 
Unto your diverse sons ? 
What lack of memory runs 
Through your tense soul that you should fail to call 
Your note of warning through your land's wide hall? 
Graceless to grasp for more than is of use, 
And give to greed a limitless abuse ; 
Find way to make your equal sons by right and law 
Partakers of yourself and sharers of your awe ! 



XVIII. 



Lo ! at the portal stands the Angel Love, 
The morning of her presence casts before 
An opulent radiance from shore to shore, 
* Responsive to the light of life above, 
And the roused land grows cognizant thereof ; 

She stands upon the threshold, she would serve 
What her dear heart can yearn for not enough. 
Fair sights from which her firm eyes will not swerve : 
She would cast out forever 
The demon who can sever 
The hands of men, make her own life the nerve 
Of all familiar acts, hold in its curve 
Of gracious ascent deeds and strong desires, 
Tread under foot fast smouldering envy's fires, 
Withhold from grasp of aught that better feeds another 
The strength that is in truth as name to all a brother. 



88 EL NUEyO MUNDO 



XIX. 



The land thrills with an impulse as of spring, 
New fountains bubble underneath the soil, 
New dreams of peace float through the night of toil, 
New melodies begin to soar and sing 
Within the regions of grim suffering ; 

Unto a newer height the goddess leads. 
Where brighter blooms their sweeter fragrance fling 
Over warm reaches of benignant meads ; 
The path before us dim 
Liies in the twilight's rim ; 
Soon the new sun Tvill cast from him the weeds 
That yet enshroud him, and a day that breeds 
A deeper love vanquish the dark anew, 
A spiritual day with skies of singing blue, 
A sea of spirit isled with souls around whom flow 
The everlasting streams full of meridian glow. 



XX. 



Fronting the abyss with smile and brow serene, 
The new man comes, self-poised, self-equal, firm. 
Not held within the narrowing senses' term. 

Not bound in chains of things but touched and seen ; 

Faith opens outlooks past the vaporous screen 
Of time, and the whole world lies bathed in Ught; 

His courage is uplifting and his keen 
Ardors endow the weak with his life's height ; 
The stars, his charioteers, 
Bring truths from utmost spheres ; 
All fears lie dead before him, thought and might 



EL hlUEyO MUNDO 89 

Obey him, and his sun is love and right ; 

Victory calls him hers, and lofty joy, 

The night and day vicissitudes employ 
For him, the sea and air are subject to his nod, 
And his divining eyes gaze up and look on God ! 

XXI. 

Here in these waiting days I raise my song. 
Catching far gleams from what is sure to be ; 
As one who hears the unsighted sonorous sea, 
And the live pulses in him fiercely long 
To mix with those glad pulses and the strong 

World-circling flow, I reach forth to the hour 
When subjugate the old tyranny of wrong 
Will range itself beside love's conquering power; 
These accents poor and faint 
But dimly limn and paint 
The centuries-crescent aloe in mid flower ; 
Ah, that a poet of the supreme dower, 
A poet such as earlier periods had, 
Or full-voiced singer as will surely glad 
The expanses of the future would build up the theme. 
And fashion forth the wonder of the truthful dream ! 

XXII. 

Be glad, O land, fling your bright banners free. 

Rejoice as never land rejoiced yet. 

All injuries forgive, all woes forget. 
Send your acclaim from summer sea to sea, 
Here at this tide happy and proud are we ! 



90 EL NUEI^O MUNDO 

Honor his heart with far heard gratitude, 
Who knew you through the gloom and mystery, 
Which held and swayed you from the first indued! 
Let not one voice upraise 
An accent other than praise ! 
O sleepless vigor with intent imbued 
To erect a peace in place of old world feud ! 
Bring from the fruitful south and stalwart north 
Your numberless array of treasures forth ! 
Build the white halls of beauty and within them store 
Marvels of thought and hand from every clime and shore ! 

XXIII. 

Also call forth from the high-laboring earth 
The wisest and the farthest reaching minds, 
The manifold insight that forever finds 
The deepening truths of more embracing worth, 
Who are the masters of the encircling mirth 

In ^^hich ideas rise and move and dwell, 
Who watch in spiritual skies the pauseless birth 
Of stars whose lordships are invincible; 
Not in the pompous past 
Has astroscope been cast 
Of richer presage, and on no time fell 
A lovelier laughter, more enduring spell ; 
The earth is harnessed to the car of man. 
The air will soon upbear his caravan ; 
Towards the bold conquests hearts and eyes are fixed and 

bent, 
Fresh fragrant winds from the far vales are blown and sent. 



EL NUEyO MUNDO 91 



XXIV. 



Has Beauty fled the earth ? Had Greece alone 
Or the great age when from the painted wall 
The thunders of the judgment seemed to fall 
The charm to win her ? shall the sculptured stone 
Or forest pile of marble, luminous grown 

With the pure sense of love, arise no more? 
Nay, half her magic has not yet been shown, 
And she will glow far dearer than before ! 
Nay, if she onl^^ wear 
Her uncrowned floating hair, 
No more a queen, but woman to adore, 
Yet must her dreams be truer, farther soar; 
Sweetest of messengers from the far skies, 
The untrembling light of truth within her eyes, 
The veilless soul of man as ne'er in ages past 
Shall by her touch in finer, fairer forms be cast ! 

XXV. 

The Faiths to whom were given the sacred keys 
Of heaven, and who by different mountain ways 
Led upward to the self-same goal of praise, 

Each deeming that the opened mysteries 

Were hers alone, and that the golden breeze 
Blown through the tree of life touched but such brows 

As bore her sign, shall mingle hands and seize 
With tears the illumination which allows 
The achievement unto each 
For which earth's prayers beseech ; 
Unto the one white Light arise all vows, 



93 EL NUE^O MUNDO 

The one white Radiance punetuallj^ endows 
The creatures everywhere with his own life, 
And joy which hath calm purity for wife 
Shines in the many-gated city when the song 
Resounds to greet each wayworn and victorious throng. 



XXVI. 



And Supreme Thought who calls the world her own, 
And passes things and life in full review, 
And gains the old truth that is ever new, 
Freedom's best guide and counselor hath grown ; 
There are no fields which her seed hath not sown, 

There are no heights which her feet may not climb. 
There are no dreams which must not hers be known, 
There are no glooms for her in any time; 
Arranger of all life, 
And mistress over strife. 
She sets the stars in melody and rhyme, 
And makes the periods with each other chime; 
Pouring her hopes into the dark recesses, 
Thridding her way through the vague wildernesses. 
She fashions, rules, designs, and dwells within the light, 
Which is the heart of hearts, and very sight of sight, 

XXVII. 

O fair republics of the warmer sun, 
O sister states rejoice amid your flowers, 
And take with us the higher-hearted hours 
That point to destinies but half begun 
And grandeurs from the urgent future won ; 



EL NUEl^O MUNDO 93 

Join hands with us in this our triumph tide, 
Send forth the tones in deep-based unison 
With Freedom's chorus which is close allied 
To the rapt song that springs 
From planetary rings ; 
Here on the stormy ocean's hither side 
We all w^ill say that room must he denied 
To aught that savors of a king or crown ; 
And you, our sister, underneath the frown 
Of colder skies, take part in our mid revelry, 
And greeting send to her across the southern sea ! 

XXVIII. 

Into the future one more forward glance ! 
Raise your great brows, O Titaness, and call 
Over to Europe's millions ; let from your lips fall 
The sound that bursts the agonizing trance. 
The message that evokes the sw^ift advance ; 
Bid war disarm, and cast his helmet down 
And show within his T\^rathless eyes' expanse 
The love ^vhich lurks behind his fleeting frown ; 
Bring nearer the glad hour 
Of congregated power ! 
Speed you the federated world, the crown 
Of time's endeavor ! speed ! so hill and town 
May answer back the rich intelligence, 
The song that ravishes both soul and sense, 
The friendship of the nations, and the end attained 
For which the tears were shed, the ground with blood was 
stained ! 



94 EL hlUEVO MUNDO 

♦ XXIX. 

And those who are the ages' children yet, 
The Tvandering tribes wlio vaguely dream and brood, 
Held in the bondage of an earth-born mood. 
By foes within and foes without beset, 
Let not the pity of the world forget ; 

Shed light through their grim darkness and uplift 
To generous manhood ; where the woods are wet 
With dew that is not morning's tremulous gift. 
Bring strength and lamplike peace 
Whose lustre must increase 
Over the earth ; with footsteps light and swift 
Let the soft influence fleet ; into the drift 
Lead the cleansed streams of hope and trust and thought 
Until the conquest is more surely wrought, 
And love and good fulfill the time, and everywhere 
A freeman raises hand and brow unto the air ! 

XXX. 

One vision more! the spiritual city lies 

Beneath the sun ; the all-subduing love 

Inhabits there as in the realms above ; 
As lordly as the blue unclouded skies 
Life passes, and the mighty daAvn's surmise 

Reaches completion, and the deeps on deeps 
Of spirit which are seen alone of eyes 

Whose watch is kin to power that never sleeps 
Are more and more revealed ; 
The inmost heavens unsealed 

Comfort the heart where no more anguish weeps, 



EL NUEyO MUNDO 95 

And open fields which faith forever reaps ; 
The truth shines everywhere and strenuous right 
Souls every deed with its transcendent light ; 
The winds are song itself, the hours are radiance-fleet, 
And fear of death is not, and every toil is sweet ! 

XXXI. 

God's thought rose clear before him and he said ; 
"Lo ! I have fashioned for mine eyes to see. 
The mighty miracle of Liberty ; 
Unto my will have many wills been wed, 
With mine own light have lesser lives been fed, 

With mine own being filled and wondrous fire. 
The increasing light by which their hearts are led 
Unto the summit of all deep desire ; 

From glowering suns and stars. 
From elemental Tvars, 
From interflux of powers and savage ire 
That bid the engirding night pause and admire, 
From anguish and despair, the wordless brood 
That fill the expanse of forests primal-rude, 
I have brought forth that mine unenvying soul might know 
The lofty love wherewith but Freedom's self can glow!" 



f 



iiS."!!;^,?/ °^ CONGRESS 




